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Entertainment Review

Ryse: Son of Rome

Xbox OneCrytek/Microsoft StudiosRating: Mature

3 stars

Are you not entertained? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!

Yes, but only just. Gladiator this ain’t.

Ryse: Son of Rome is something we don’t see very often: a video game about loincloth-clad centurions, gladiators and barbarians. While it feels like a distant cousin to God of War, it’s a hack-n’-slash action-adventure slightly more grounded in reality. But only slightly.

And as an exclusive game for Microsoft’s new Xbox One console, developed by the same folks behind the gorgeous Crysis series, it’s also very pretty to look at, in a bloody, muddy kind of way. Never has arterial spray from a freshly sliced throat looked quite so convincing. Now, if only it had the brains to go with this beauty.

Ryse tells the story of Marius Titus, a Roman general recounting the past 10 years of his life in flashback form, beginning with his father’s murder then following his exploits across the Roman Empire, slicing and dicing barbarians, Britons and dudes who wear giant bull skulls on their heads.

Combat is the heart of Ryse, and it’s a heart that beats quickly, if not deeply. The swordplay is simplistic – there are really only two types of attacks, plus a block manoeuvre and a dodge roll – but it feels a little bit like the delicate dance of position and timing that makes fisticuffs in the Batman: Arkham so satisfying, and each sword strike and shield block bears a gritty heft and weight.

Once Marius has sufficiently weakened a foe, players can initiate an over-the-top, blood-gushing execution move. These are so-called quick time events, which, while generally loathsome in games, have the advantage of being both simple and infallible: you merely press the X or Y button each time your victim flashes blue (for X) or yellow (for Y), and carry out the multi-part and deliciously gory kill. Messing up the button presses simply nets fewer overall points.

It’s a good thing the battles are mostly fun, because that’s really all the game has to offer. There are occasional sequences where Marius and his troops form up into a phalanx and advance on archers, or spots where Marius directs his troops to attack a particular position. But for the most part, it’s all swords, shields and cascading crimson.

Ryse is also as linear as it gets. While it’s not as polished as, say, a Call of Duty game, it has the same kind of vibe – you follow your nose to the next cutscene-triggering checkpoint, killing everything you see along the way. No thought required.

The plot-advancing cutscenes are very cinematic, though, with some fantastic performance-capture work. The story’s a bit jumbled, but there are a few moments of mystery, intrigue and betrayal that are individually interesting. And while the action jumps all over the place geographically, this does help keep the environments feeling fresh, even of the various enemies seem to be reskinned versions of one another.

Racking up kills and defeating bosses nets valour points, an experience system which can be used for a some basic character upgrades, from health boosts to increasing the duration of Marius’ focus mode (think bullet time, but with swords.) One incredibly noxious aspect of this is if players haven’t yet earned enough valour points, they have the option to upgrade their skills with “gold” – i.e., currency purchased through the Xbox Store, which starts at $1 for 1,000 points.

Really, Microsoft? Microtransactions in a $60 console game? And a flagship launch title? That’s just skeezy. Please don’t let this become the norm.

In addition to the eight-chapter single-player campaign, Ryse offers an online co-op gladiator mode, pitting two players against increasingly deadly waves of enemies. It’s a bit of simple fun for a while, especially when you and your pal can successfully lure foes into the arenas’ many deathtraps, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen in other games. In fact it’s a lot like God of War: Ascension’s Trial of the Gods mode, right down to selecting a specific deity that grants your special ability.

I almost feel like Ryse wants to be the Xbox One’s Gears of War – a new intellectual property by a studio known for visually stunning games, and a title that can perhaps kick off a franchise. But Ryse is too shallow, too simple and too familiar to be anything more than a fleeting bit of fun. I’d be shocked if a sequel was in the cards.

Gladiator may have won Oscars, but Ryse is much more like the movie 300 – nice to look at, mindless and silly at times, and the kind of experience you’ll probably forget as soon as the credits roll.